An alleged romantic tryst in the halls of justice

As the area's chief law enforcement administrator, District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr. is accustomed to meting out discipline. It's just typically not directed to members of his own staff.

Within the last few weeks, Early has placed one of his prosecutors on unpaid leave after her arrest for drunken driving, and transferred a second assistant DA after she was caught on a courthouse videotape in a sexually compromising encounter with a Worcester police sergeant.

In an interview Tuesday, Early declined to comment about the sexual incident but confirmed that he transferred the female assistant district attorney to a suburban district court last week. She had been an assistant DA in Worcester for three years, and had reportedly submitted her name for a judgeship.

"If there's a personnel matter that needs to be addressed, we would address it internally," Early said. "If we have a problem we deal with it. People are held to standards and make mistakes and we deal with it."

He added, "In this office as with life, things seem to come in cycles. It's a roller coaster. You have your ups, you have your downs."

Last month would perhaps be considered a down cycle. On Sept. 18, the ADA was reportedly captured on videotape in a romantic tryst with a detective sergeant in a conference room linked to Courtroom No. 20. Both are married to other people and have young children.

Four days later, Assistant District Attorney Gina M. DiBaro was arrested and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, after she failed field sobriety tests during a traffic stop by Hopedale police.

DiBaro has been placed on unpaid leave, and some courthouse observers have grumbled that Early protected one prosecutor with a transfer while coming down harder on DiBaro. When asked about the complaints, Early said, "Gina BiBaro was arrested and there was a criminal charge," adding that she has prosecuted people for the same crime with which she's now charged.

The incident in the conference room has been the focus of intense gossip at the courthouse and beyond for weeks. While some employees have seemed eager to engage in speculation, many others say the parties involved are well-liked and well-respected.

"We're just hoping it goes away," one employee said.

Still others expressed surprise that the parties would risk being caught on videotape. While the tape is reportedly in the custody of the state Trial Court, Jeff Morrow, director of security for the Trial Court, declined to discuss the incident or elaborate on the video system.

"Video surveillance is commonly used for enhanced security throughout the commonwealth," he said.

This newspaper decided not to publish the names of the parties involved. While their behavior may be considered inappropriate or untoward, they're consenting adults who committed no crime. As an aside, both they and DiBaro are highly regarded employees who may fall under the category of good people doing dumb things.

Early, meanwhile, said no office is free of problems.

"When I got this job, I was told by other DAs that some of your greatest triumphs and greatest challenges would be your employees," Early said. "People will judge you by how you respond to the incidents. You just try to make sure they don't happen again."

It's not known if Police Chief Gary Gemme intends to take action against his sergeant, as neither he nor his spokesman returned phone calls this week. Nor is it clear why he would insist in another publication that "no sexual activity or content" was captured on the tape when the evidence seems to suggest otherwise.

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